Archive for February 2013
Redistricting on the grandest scale…
Dr. Andrew Shears is a geographer by both vocation and avocation. Fascinated by American history, and by what might have been, he created the map above…
I discovered a list that really intrigued me like none other: the List of U.S. State Partition Proposals. For a geographer/cartographer who’s a U.S.-specialist and who’s interested in alternate history, this was Kryptonite for my productivity. From this list, I stumbled onto listings for U.S. Territories that Failed to Become States and the listing for the hypothetical 51st State. I even came across a nice little book called Lost States, a humorous account from Michael Trinklein that briefly explores a number of random states that never quite happened.
After reading all of these things, and all of the linked pages connected — that’s where Wikipedia really sucks you in — I, of course, allowed my own mind to wander and I came up with the beginnings of a historical geography narrative for the United States of my own, drawing on each of these sources. How could I spell this out? Well, I’m no novelist, because I just really don’t have the imagination or skills necessary to put together a story in that format. However, I can make maps here and there, and I firmly believe that maps can do a pretty good job telling a story.
What did I end up with? My own alternate history U.S. map of 124 states…
As one watches the U.S. government congeal into an unappetizing mess– as representatives, “serving” districts and states shaped though decades and decades of gerrymandering, vote narrow interests in search of advantage in elections-to-come– we might ponder Dr. Shear’s reminder of how differently it might all have looked… if only for the reminder that it didn’t have to be– nor does it have in the future to be– this way.
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As we wonder what in the world became of Mr. Smith, we might recall that it was on this date in 1861 that President James Buchanan signed into law the Congressional Act creating the “organized incorporated Territory of Colorado.” The land had come to the U.S. in 1848 as part of the spoils of the Mexican-American War. Then populated virtually exclusively by Native Americans, white settlers flooded in with the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858. Pressure from those new arrivals, along with a different kind of pressure felt by Washington as Southern states were seceding in the run-up to the Civil War (this was the period immediately before Lincoln’s inauguration), spurred the action– which expanded the Union and gave it access to the gold and other minerals in the Southern Rockies.
A rose by any other name…
From Geotastic, “Vaguely Rude Place Names of the World.”
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As book our next vacations, we might recall that it was on this date in 1980 that Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” beat out Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland,” Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough,” Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?,” and Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” to win the first– and only– “Best Disco Recording” Grammy ever awarded.
Cabinet of Curiosities…
Satyra altera species
Monstrorum Historia, (Bologna, 1642)
Author: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605)
Aldrovandi was a prodigious writer of natural history. His book on monsters, profusely illustrated with marvellous woodcuts of monsters in the human, animal and vegetable realms, forms part of his great encyclopoedic work on natural history complete in thrirteen thick volumes, of which only four were published during his lifetime. His valuable teratological work is by far the most exahaustive treatise on monsters with descriptions and depictions of all kinds of monstrosities. Even if the woodcuts often are fanciful or largely inaccurate they exceeded a considerable influence and became the prototypes for succeeding illustrators of monsters.
The Hagströmerbiblioteket– the Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library— is a treasure trove of unique medical art treasures. In order to make their holdings more accessible, they’ve created the Wunderkammer (“Cabinet of Wonders”)– at once a glorious collection of historically-important (and often strikingly strange) medical and scientific illustrations , and an homage to the European Renaissance tradition of “The Cabinet of Curiosities.”
Prothesis, artificial leg
Les Oeuvres. Quatrième édition, (Paris, 1585)
Author: PARÉ, Ambroise (1510-1590)Paré was a French barber surgeon and the official Royal Surgeon for four successive French kings. He is considered one of the fathers of modern surgery, and a leader of surgical techniques. His collective works were published in several editions, a book of over 1000 pages richly illustrated with woodcuts and among them his inventions of both artificial hands and legs.
Scurvy
Physiognomice Pathologica – Krankenphysiognomik, (Stuttgart, 1859)
Author: BAUMGÄRTNER, Karl Heinrich (1798-1886) Artist: Karl SandhaasA remarkable atlas with portraits of patients suffering from various diseases. Baumgärtner, professor of medicine in Freiburg, taught it was possible to make a correct diagnosis with accompanying medical treatment by studying the patient’s physiognomy, the expression of the face, the colour of the skin, the eyes, the lips, etc.
Tour the full collection at The Wunderkammer. (And for a look at what’s become of the “Cabinet of Curiosities” in our times, check out Joesph Cornell’s boxes (here or here)– better yet, visit the extraordinary Museum of Jurassic Technology… or if L.A. isn’t handy, read Lawrence Wechsler’s extraordinary Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder.)
[Thanks to AH, via EWW]
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As we self-diagnose, we might recall that it was on this date in 1878 that Charles Sédillot received approval from the editor of the 1886 edition of the Dictionary of Medicine, Emile Littré, to name certain micro-organisms “microbe”– rather than, say, “microbia”– even though “microbe” is coined from two Greek words that together mean “short-lived” rather than “small life.”
Sédillot
Synesthesia…
British designer Christophe Gowans put himself to the task of imagining “if best-selling albums had been books instead”…
Many more pulpy pleasures at “The Record Books.”
[TotH to Paris Review]
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As we head for the library, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956, at a party in Cambridge, England, that Fulbright Scholar Sylvia Plath met poet Ted Hughes.
…the one man in the room who was as big as his poems, huge… I screamed in myself, thinking, Oh, to give myself crashing, fighting, to you.
Her wish was granted; they were married later that same year. They didn’t make beautiful music together, but did each create a stream of powerfully-important books: Plath killed herself, in London, in 1963, several weeks after The Bell Jar came out; in 1981 her Collected Poems (edited by Hughes, who oversaw her posthumous publications) won the Pulitzer Prize. Hughes was himself a great success as a poet (and children’s writer). Critics regularly rank him as one of the best poets of his generation; he served as Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998.
Many Happy Returns…
The Free Music Archive has found a replacement for the most recognizable– and probably the most lucrative– song in America– “Happy Birthday To You.” Together with WFMU, FMA ran a contest to find a new copyright-free (and free to use) “Happy Birthday” song…
The “Happy Birthday To You” melody was published in the late 1800s by two sisters who taught elementary school, and it was registered for copyright, as “Happy Birthday To You” in 1935. Time Warner acquired the copyright in 1998. The song reportedly brings in two million dollars a year from licensing for films, TV shows, advertisements and the like; it won’t enter the public domain until 2030 at the earliest.
WFMU thought it was dubious that the song still deserves copyright protection, but rather than mount a court challenge, it sponsored a competition for a new birthday celebration song. Among the judges were Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.
As WFMU says, the new song puts the happy back into birthdays, and takes the cease and desist out of them.
The winning tune, by Monk Turner + Fascinoma lacks the opportunity to shout out the birthday person’s name; but there is room to build in a call and response element. You can download the sheet music in the key of B (pdf, google doc) or the key of C (pdf, google doc). Also, check out the alternative versions of the song including two piano tracks and an instrumental version.
And you can hear it, playing behind Bloomberg Law’s recounting of the case, here:
[TotH to Laughing Squid]
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As we hum a different tune, we might send public domain birthday greetings to Wilhelm Carl Grimm; he was born on this date in 1786. The younger of the Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob collected and published folk and “fairy” tales… a great many of which, freely available as they are in the public domain, have been used as the texts of animated and live action films that are– and will for decades be– under strict copyright protection (c.f., for example, this list of Disney films based on fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and others).
[Cake photo sourced here; Grimm, here]
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